Government and politics

BPS Scottish Public Affairs Update: October 2024

Updates and information on public affairs in Scotland.

31 October 2024

UK Budget

On 30 October, Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered her budget statement to the House of Commons. BPS will monitor the impact the changes announced will have on the funding allocations for Scotland.

Scotland's Finance Secretary, Shona Robison, will deliver the Scottish Budget on 4 December 2024.

Scottish Government

Programme for Government 2024-25 published

On 4 September, the Scottish government published its Programme for Government 2024-25, setting out its actions for the coming year and the legislative programme for the next parliamentary year. It will focus efforts and resources on four key priorities:

Eradicating child poverty
Ensuring high quality and sustainable public services
Growing the economy
Tackling the climate emergency

Commitments include:

£120m of extra funding for NHS Boards to support improvements in mental health services and treatments. This is also intended to meet the national standard for CAMHS waiting times and clear backlogs by December 2025.
Reduce delayed discharges and variation in practice across different parts of Scotland.
Reduce workload and hours, bringing forward progress towards a 36-hour week for

Agenda for Change staff.

Implement protections on learning time.
Support for families affected by drug and alcohol use – including early intervention for young people at risk, reducing stigma, integrating mental health support, and funding specialist residential rehabilitation services for families and perinatal women.
Reform the Victim Notification Scheme to operate in a more trauma-informed and person-centred way; and introduce training on trauma for staff across the justice system.
Hold an independent review of sentencing and penal policy, looking at how both imprisonment and community interventions are used, to reduce reoffending.
End the detention of under 18s in young offenders' institutions.
£145.5m to local authorities to protect teacher numbers.
Support education authorities and schools to reduce absence and improve attendance.

On the legislative front, the Scottish Government intends to introduce 14 new Bills, including:

Adults with Incapacity: the Bill will be a first step to update and modernise the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000 in line with developing thinking and international standards on human rights.
Criminal Justice Modernisation and Abusive Domestic Behaviour Reviews: this will introduce measures that modernise criminal justice processes and provide a legislative framework for Scotland's first national multi-agency Domestic Homicide and Suicide Review model.
Misogyny: the Bill will create new offences related to misogynistic conduct, providing new powers to hold to account perpetrators who harm women and reinforce barriers to an equal society.
Post-School Education Reform: the Bill will reform the post-school funding body landscape.
Prisoners: the Bill will propose changes to the release process for prisoners, as outlined in the recent Scottish government consultation.

The Scottish Government will also publish draft provisions for a Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodivergence Bill; and continue to develop proposals for Human Rights and Ending Conversion Practices.

Finance Secretary announces measures to balance Scottish Budget 2024/25

Scotland's Finance Secretary, Shona Robison, made a statement ahead of the Scottish Budget, confirmed for 4 December 2024.

She stated that to balance the Scottish Budget for 2024/25, direct savings of £500m will be achieved by means including implementing emergency spending controls across the public sector and making additional savings across portfolios, including health and social care.

In a letter Kenneth Gibson MSP, Convener of the Scottish Parliament Finance and Public Administration Committee, Robison stated that:

"Whilst savings have been made within the Health budgets, I want to provide assurances that the Health portfolio will seek to protect key front line emergency services".

Further detail on agreed budget savings can be found in Annex A of the letter.

Mental Health & Wellbeing Strategy

BPS is currently engaging with the Mental Health and Wellbeing Leadership Board via our membership of Scotland's Mental Health Partnership (SMHP), which has a seat on the board. We await detailed progress updates on a number of the Strategy's Delivery Plan 2023-25 actions, including in those relating to forensic mental health, learning disability and neurodiversity; and various strands of work in relation to taking trauma informed approaches.

Mental Health Capacity Reform Programme / Mental Health Law Reform

BPS continues to engage with the Scottish Government as its mental health capacity reform programme progresses, including our recent BPS response to Adults with Incapacity bill consultation.

Scottish Government and COSLA publish Joint Action Plan on Relationships and Behaviour

In August, in response to the evidence from the Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research 2023, the Joint Action Plan on Relationships and Behaviour: national action plan 2024 to 2027 was published. It was developed by the Scottish Advisory Group on Relationships and Behaviour in Schools (SAGRABIS).

Gender identity healthcare for young people

On 3 September, Scottish Government Public Health Minister Jenni Minto confirmed that the Scottish Government has accepted all the findings of the Cass Review on gender identity services for young people and that work is underway to implement its recommendations, which include:

gender identity healthcare services for children and young people being provided in paediatric clinical settings
the provision of these services via a distributed network, or regional model, rather than on one site
an end to self-referral, with young people being referred to specialist services by a clinician, in common with other specialities.

The government also published three related documents on the day of the announcement:

Anti-racism statement from Cabinet Secretary for Health

On 6 September, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Neil Gray, issued a statement which identifies racism as a public health challenge.

All 22 NHS Health Boards will be required to develop and deliver against their own anti-racism plans. The government will be publishing national guidance for boards and is taking forward the development of bespoke anti-racism training resources to support NHS managers on how to address racist incidents in the workplace and support staff who experience or witness it.

Scottish Parliament

National Care Service (Scotland) Bill

The Bill remains at Stage 2 (amendments). The deadline for amendments (which are lodged by MSPs) is 20 November 2024.

The BPS will keep members updated as the Bill progresses.

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill

BPS submitted a response to the Scottish Parliament Health, Social Care and Sport Committee call for views on the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill. Our response focused on the potential implications for healthcare professionals should the bill proceed, covering capacity assessments, conscientious objection and safeguards for healthcare professionals.

On 30 September, the Scottish Government's Cabinet Secretary for Health wrote a letter to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, highlighting the government's view that key aspects of proposed measures in the Bill are outside the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament, in particular relating to the reserved matters of medicines, medical supplies and poisons; and regulation of the health professions.

Scottish Ministers will have a free vote on the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill at Stage 1 of the Parliamentary process; and the Scottish Government will be maintaining a neutral position on the Bill at this Stage.

The BPS will keep members updated as the Bill progresses.

ADHD in Scotland – Prevalence, treatment, and private care

Published in September, a blog from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) outlines the prevalence of ADHD in Scotland and challenges faced by NHS neurodevelopmental assessment pathways.

Scottish Parliament Cross-Party Groups (CPGs)

BPS was represented at recent CPG Autism; CPG Mental Health; CPG on Improving Scotland's Health; and CPG on Substance Use meetings.

Recent BPS responses to consultations (Scotland)

Open consultations

Palliative Care Matters for All: strategy consultation

The Scottish Government consultation seeks views on its next five year strategy (2025-2030), building on its previous palliative care strategies, 'Living and Dying Well: A national action plan for palliative and end of life care in Scotland (2008)' and 'Palliative and end of life care: strategic framework for action (2015)'.

To inform the BPS response, please send your views to [email protected] by 18 December 2024.

Developing a universal definition of 'care experience'

The Scottish Government consultation seeks views on the need for a universal definition of 'care experience' and what the potential impacts of this could be.

To inform the BPS response, please send your views to [email protected] by 20 December 2024

To view all open and closed consultations, visit: Consultations and briefings | BPS

Contact

To find out more about our policy and public affairs work in Scotland, view the Scottish Public Affairs Updates on our website or contact June Deasy, Senior Public Affairs Adviser in Scotland ([email protected]).